Appearance of Lord Vamanadeva

Today is a very beautiful auspicious day, the Maha Dvadasi festival that we are following and is also the appearance day of Shri Vamanadeva.

As soon as Krishna appeared, He had told about Vamanadeva to Devaki and Vasudeva. Devaki and Vasudeva where praying in Satya Yuga, they were performing austerities. They had different names and had different birth at that time. Devaki and Vasudeva performed austerities for thousands of years to have Bhagavan Vishnu as their son. So, for their austerities Vishnu appeared before them. When He appeared before Devaki and Vasudeva, they requested Him, “Please give us a son like You.” Vishnu said, “It’s not possible to have a son like Me, because I am just one, there is no other like Me. It’s not possible. However, since you have performed such great austerities… I am very satisfied with you and very happy. It’s not possible to have someone like Me. But I Myself will be your son in all three following ages. And I will remind you that I am that Vishnu for whom you performed great austerities.” After saying this, Lord Vishnu disappeared.

He Himself appeared as Prishnigarbha in Satya Yuga and for the third time Lord Himself appeared as Vamanadeva, the son of Kasyapa and Aditi. The same Prisni and Sutapa appeared as Kasyapa and Aditi, and Lord appeared as their son Vamanadeva. So Aditi and Kasyapa were Vasudeva and Devaki. In the third age they were born as Kasyapa and Aditi and Vishnu was born as Vamanadeva. And at another time Vishnu appeared as Krishna from Devaki’s womb. From her womb He appeared as Lord Narayana with shankha and chakra and told them, “Please, have My darshana. As I promised, I have appeared as your son. This will be My last appearance as your son. First I was born as Prishnigarbha, second time as Vamana and now third time… when you are Devaki and Vasudeva, I am born as your son and the whole world will call Me Vasudeva Krishna. Please have my darshana of Narayana. So Lord Vishnu appeared as Narayana before Devaki and Vasudeva in the prison of Kamsa.

And now I am going to tell you in brief about Vamanadeva. For infinite time, there has always been a war between demons and demigods. Since the beginning, they have been fighting with each other. And because of this fight, Lord Vamanadeva appeared as a son of Aditi. At that time there was a great personality, Bali Maharaja. He was the king of heavenly, mundane and lower planets. But he had sattvik nature. He used to perform fire sacrifices everyday and whoever would come during this fire sacrifice, would receive donation from him. So Vamanadeva thought, “Now this is a good chance to take from Bali Maharaja all the kingdoms that he owns.” Lord Vamanadeva disguised Himself as a very small child – Vamana. Vamana means “dwarf”. There is a beautiful description of how He walked with umbrella. He was so short that it was hard to see if there was anyone under the umbrella. It just looked like the umbrella walked on its own.

So Vamanadeva came to Bali Maharaja and asked, “Please give Me some donation. I am the son of a brahmana. And I am a brahmana myself. I don’t need anything. Just let me measure three steps of land.” Bali Maharaja started laughing, “Haha, Your brain is as small as You are. Who comes to a king and asks for a pumpkin from him?” The cheapest thing is a pumpkin. Maybe in western countries it’s expensive, but in India it is 20 rupees or something like that.

Bali Maharaja said, “Ask for a village. You are a brahmana. I will give you a village. Ask for a city.” And now what Vamanadeva is saying? He is asking for three steps of land. His feet are so tiny, 1 or 2 inches maximum. That’s why Bali Maharaja started laughing. Then Vamanadeva said, “It’s ok, I will measure the land using My feet.”

How should one give a donation? He has to purify himself, do some achamana and promise three times, “I will give, I will give, I will give.” So when Bali Maharaja was going to do achamana, Sukracharya realised that the boy was not ordinary child but Vishnu, who disguised Himself as a dwarf and was going to take everything from the king. That is why Sukracharya told Bali, “This little child is Vishnu Himself. Do not give Him anything.” Bali Maharaja said, “Gurudev, today is my very auspicious day. The owner of everything has come here to ask me. I am so lucky that He has come to me! What is wrong when Lord Himself asks for something?” Bali Maharaja tried to explain this to his guru Sukracharya, “Gurudev, Bhagavan is the owner of everything. He is the one who created all brahmandas, innumerable universes. It is my most pleasure to give Him anything.” Sukracharya said, “If you give Him everything, who will give dakshina to me?” Bali Maharaja replied, “Gurudev, I am so sorry. I am going to give to Bhagavan whatever He asks from me.” Sukracharya thought, “Bali does not understand. I’ll do whatever I can to stop this”. Meanwhile Vamanadeva moved Bali out, “Come on, quickly.”

Bali Maharaja was going to use a pot with holy water for achamana, and what did Sukracharya do? He took the form of a fish and entered that pot, so that the water could not come out of it. Vamanadeva immediately understood what was going on and said, “Ok, if the water got stuck in the pot, we can poke it with a blade of grass.” So when they poked a pot, Sukracharya’s eye started to bleed and he lost it. Then finally Bali Maharaja did achamana.

There is a saying: that guru is not guru who cannot give real benefits to his disciple. Those parents are not parents who cannot turn their kids into devotees. Those friends are not friends who cannot give devotion to their friends. That wife is not wife who cannot inspire her husband for bhagavata-bhakti. And that husband is not husband who cannot encourage his wife to perform bhagavata-seva. You should abandon them. This is a very bitter instruction given in the shastras.

What we are saying is that this Sukracharya was not a guru, so we should give up that kind of guru. Now I finish here and I will continue tomorrow.